kimchi to the max!!!

In no elegant order, here are some things i have either done or learned in Seoul.

1. went to the kimchi museum in Coex mall with Jae's sister Minsun and her friend (Jae is a friend from HIF who volunteered the sightseeing services of his younger sister to me when i told him i was coming to Seoul). Coex is an enormous complex that includes a fancy hotel, restaurants, a kimchi museum, a shopping area, a movie theater, an aquarium, and a kimchi museum. this museum has plastic models of every kimchi dish ever conceived by the Korean mind, and even has a computer program that painstakingly details all the ingredients of every dish and the technique with which to create them. we sat next to two Japanese, and the daughter was reading the list of kimchi dishes off to her mother with fascination and zeal. i asked them how to get the movie about kimchi running and they then both expressed to me their love of kimchi and talked with me about mine. this museum is a place where everyone in the world can assemble and appreciate pickled cabbage together.

2. We then went hiked up to Seoul Tower, which rises up above the city atop a mountain in the city center. Minsun's friend related to me how Seoul's skyline is all helter skelter (not using those particular words), spreading out in all directions and making the city look like some petri dish culture left in the heat, unlike the managed hedgerow look of NYC. The bathroom below the viewing area was arguably the most impressive lavatory i've ever pissed in: glass windows allowing a view of the entire city, urinals complete with small image of fly for aiming purposes, a sink with a hodgepodge of faucets emerging from a center mass of metal. Artful and pleasing to the senses.

3. Don't drink too much soju and then go to a bar with a group of foreigners you just met and stay out until 3 am talking to Korean girls who are used to manipulating foreigners into buying them drinks.

4. The bathroom on my floor of this hostel smells like kimchi that's been soaking in urine in a toilet bowl. The funny thing is, there is no kimchi to be found in the entire hostel! I mean, i have not done a thorough search or anything, but i am mystified.

5. Only two more days in Seoul and i must make the best of them. I was kindly invited out to dinner by Jae's family Sunday night, and i am excited about that. Today i plan to venture into a Korean onsen (spa/sauna sort of thing) with my Italian friend and maybe the Finnish dude from our room. Oh, we're leaving now.

And this concludes today's list of lessons learned and experiences well achieved.